A piece of furniture of the above named type is known from WO 2008/141348 A2. The piece of furniture has a first element in form of a furniture shell and a second element in form of a movable flap. By means of the drive device, the flap can be automatically transferred into an open or a closed position. For actuating, i.e. switching-on the drive device, a switching element is provided. The switching element is arranged and formed such, that by a movement of the flap caused by a user, the drive device is actuated. In this case, the flap is arranged in its closed position such, that it covers the switching element and abuts the same. Because of a pressure loading onto the flap in direction towards the piece of furniture a pressure switch of the switching element is switched and the drive device is actuated. In this case, a sufficient large compression path has to be provided for the pressure switch and thus for the flap, which compression path has to be provided between the flap and the piece of furniture. This can, for example, be ensured by a spring buffer. It can be disadvantageous, that with each pressure application onto the flap the drive device is actuated and the flap is transferred into the open position, even when the flap was pushed accidentally. WO 2008/141348 A2 proposes alternatively to provide a position measuring device, by means of which also the velocity and acceleration of the movement of the flap can be calculated. This allows, that driving of the flap by means of the drive device is carried out in dependency of the determined sizes of the flap. In this case, also a corresponding pushing path has to be provided via spring buffers. A further alternative, which is proposed in WO 2008/141348 A2, are capacitive switching elements, which operate free of contact.